It'll Pass

Q: "Is there a song on your album 'Imagine' that refers to Paul? Lines about a pretty face and the sound of Muzak?"

John Lennon: (smiling) "Er, there's a song which COULD be a statement about Paul. It could be interpreted that way. But then, it could be about an old chick I'd known."

ㅡ John Lennon interview for Alan Smith (Hit Parade), February, 1972.

In 1965 [the Byrds] toured England and Paul invited us to his club, the Scotch of St James’s [sic]. He sent a limo to pick us up. He said he had been listening to our music. We were blown away. He took us for a ride through London in his Aston Martin, at great speed. He was really hip, he and John were so tight it was like one person at times. Unlike the Byrds, [where] Crosby would just leave you out to dry, the Beatles all defended each other to the hilt. If you criticised, say, George then they would all respond.

[—Roger McGuinn, in Paul McCartney: Now & Then, Tony Barrow and Robin Bextor]

[John and Paul] sort of had their own way of communicating. Hardly anything was spoken, they just knew what the other wanted or was getting at and they had the most amazing talent. […] Paul was an awesome musical presence. He was, like, ten feet tall with music and it was everything: folk, rock, musical hall, choral, it was all there. He was like a different animal with Lennon. When they were together they became something else, more than just the two of them together. That communication was incredible. It was like two high-speed computers just fizzing between each other.

[—Steve Miller, in Paul McCartney: Now & Then, Tony Barrow and Robin Bextor]

Here’s the Let it Be excerpt spliced with the Get back scene. (Basically I synched the original audio with Peter Jackson’s restored film) see this post for more

the way George is talking, I'm crying

This Is Not Here Press Conference @ Everson Museum in Syracuse, NY (October 8, 1971).

Reporter: What do you think of Paul, John?

John: I’ve changed, you know, he’s still the closest friend I’ve ever had except for Yoko. So I mean I’m still close to him whatever goes on.

In terms of timeline, the next day was John’s 31st birthday, where I believe we have audio recording of John conducting a nostalgic singalong of Yesterday during the party.

These pictures together are really good!

yeah imagine

My favorite comments on How Do You Sleep

Some quotes from Bob Spitz's The Beatles Biography

“Paul loved working with John. At the beginning it was like sex–they popped them off, one after another.“

"John hooked right in and fed off the energy. John and Paul had remarkably similar tastes [in music]; they liked it fast, hard, and loose."

"It never occurred to Paul just how much he missed John. More than anyone else, John had been his friend for ten years, to say nothing of his collaborator, his sidekick, his shadow. Not only had they played music together, they'd hung out together, dreamed together, fucked together, become famous together. Grown up together."

“The last week in August, Paul McCartney returned to Liverpool, tanned and noticeably slimmer. In addition to starting school, he came back to begin a relationship he seemed destined for: hooking up with John Lennon."

"School proved a nagging obstacle for John and Paul, the occasional stolen afternoons unsatisfying, hardly time enough to get something going before Jim arrived home from work. Weekends were reserved primarily for the band. It wasn't so much that they needed time to write as much as it was each other's company. "Something special was growing between them," says Colin Hanton, "something that went past friendship as we knew it."

"But it was clear once Ivan and Paul got around to John, there was a lot of ‘checking out’ being done”

"But John was enamored of Paul’s prodigious talent, so much that all previous reservations disappeared. Transfixed, John squatted on his haunches, squinting, close enough to study Paul’s elastic hands.”

"John and Paul circled each other like cats. Their interest in each other was deeper and more complex than it appeared to anyone watching the encounter. There was instant recognition, a chemical connection made between two boys who sensed in the other the same heartfelt commitment to this music, the same do-or-die. For all the circling, posturing, and checking out that went on, what it all came down to was love at first sight."

Can you imagine being John Lennon in 1974, and you’re about to see your ex-best friend/pseudo husband/songwriting partner for the first time in years, plus its a really big moment cause you’re tentatively thinking about working with him again, then the motherfucker shows up looking like this unironically: